Giving back: Rotary Club of Kent donates $5,000 to Project Ethiopia

The Rotary Club of Kent on Tuesday presented a $5,000 check to Project Ethiopia, a nonprofit organization that empowers villagers in the northwest part of the East African nation to implement and sustain improvements in health, education and local economic activity.

One element of its work is education. Since 2012, Project Ethiopia has made awards to 288 high school graduates. Beyond helping rural students reduce the economic and cultural barriers to transition to university, these awards motivate the recipients to work hard and stay in school. The first group of students (43 awards made in 2012) all graduated from university; 12 are now working as nurses, accountants, and teachers; and the remaining 31 are continuing their graduate education in medicine and engineering.

University Transition Awards inspire all university prep students to work hard and dream big. From 2014 to 2016, the percentage of students who took the university exam and passed increased each year, from 46 percent in 2014 to 93 percent in 2017. Award recipients contribute back to the school and community in many ways, including tutoring younger students in preparation for the national exam and raising funds at their universities to support their high school in Dangla, a district of Ethiopia.